This Landscape is Ours
Rediscover Calderdale: Mapping Your Stories of Place and Memory
IOU and Breaking Barriers Present a New Light and Sound Night Walk
February 2025
TICKETS
This Landscape is Ours is a community-led social history project that gathers stories from the people that call Calderdale their home, celebrating and shining a spotlight on the cherished, forgotten and remembered places that hold significance for Calderdale’s diverse people and communities
Over 6 months, IOU and Breaking Barriers met with people from across Calderdale, recording personal stories and weaving these with visual imagery, soundscapes and animation to create an immersive Light and Sound Night Walk for people to enjoy on their local streets.
Beyond this the project will continue to grow through the production of a new interactive map that collates all our collective stories and memories, charting our relationship to the many places and landscapes that make up Calderdale. The map will allow everyone a chance to place a cross and mark their own meaning to the places that are most important to them and create a legacy for what Calderdale means to all of us at this moment in time
Light and Sound Night Walks
Over four nights in February 2025, you are invited to see Calderdale through a lens that will change how you view this landscape forever.
We invite you to put on headphones and to embark upon an immersive experience of sound, light and visuals that bring familiar streets to life, whilst peeling back the layers of memory and meaning attached to these special places through the stories of local people told in their own words.
This Landscape is Ours
Light and Sound Night Walks
Wednesday 5 Feb – Saturday 8 Feb
6pm and 7.30pm
Tickets are FREE but booking is essential as places are limited
Starting from Halifax Bus Station the guided half mile walk will last approximately 45 minutes, with short stops along the way, culminating in a spectacular visual experience at The Piece Hall
The walk ends at Halifax Borough Market where you are then invited to have refreshments and to reflect on the experience and share your thoughts.
From forgotten architecture to sweeping vistas, from old libraries and dancehalls to shuttered shops, Calderdale is filled with memories and hidden treasures waiting to be unearthed in this storytelling feast for the senses.
We invite you to put on headphones and to embark upon an immersive experience of sound, light and visuals that bring familiar streets to life, whilst peeling back the layers of memory and meaning attached to these special places through the stories of local people told in their own words.
This is a guided walking tour undertaken in a group of 20 people
The meeting point is at Halifax Bus Station. The end point is Borough Market
The half mile walk will last approximately 45 minutes, with short stops along the way. The group move from start to finish at a slow and steady pace
At the end of the route, you are invited for a hot drink and snack at Borough Market to reflect on the experience and share your thoughts.
Please wear comfortable footwear and dress appropriately for cold February evening weather
The route is mostly flat, but there are a few gentle inclines, and there are some curbs
Accessible options have been located and a member of our team will be dedicated to any audience members who need additional support. The Breaking Barriers Access Consultant Sam Jamil has been consulted to ensure that the route is suitable for wheelchair users
The audio experience will be available through the headphones provided
The audio piece is delivered in English
The project is suitable for age 10+ (children should be accompanied by adults)
Content warning: Strong language in one of the stories
Participants are free to bring pushchairs if required
This Landscape is Ours is a key commission for CultureDale and represents a new partnership between IOU Creation Centre and Breaking Barriers
Born out of a desire to capture the unique relationship we have with our immediate landscape, the project transforms reflections on the places that mean the most to us into an audio walk with accompanying visual projections revealing the personal meanings behind the locations we encounter on a daily basis.
Using techniques and approaches that both organisations have cultivated on previous projects, such as Breaking Barrier’s Stories We Tell & IOU’s The Storytelling Bus, ‘This Landscape is Ours’ will be accompanied by an interactive digital map which will collect personal stories or reflections on the Calderdale landscape that means the most to people.
Over 6 months, IOU and Breaking Barriers met with people from across Calderdale, recording personal stories
More than 30 people who live and work in Calderdale met with us to record their stories in their own words and then some to be photographed in their 'landscape' This is a selection of those photographs by Ed Waring
About Breaking Barriers
Breaking Barriers is a Rochdale-based production company whose work is rooted in amplifying unheard voices and bringing ambitious work to local streets and people. We regularly work with communities and artists from a rich diversity of backgrounds and lived experiences, and like to tell stories in ambitious digital formats.
About IOU
IOU Creation Centre for contemporary art, engineering, and technology is based at Dean Clough Mills in Halifax. We support local and national artists providing opportunities to co-create and produce innovative ideas and artworks. Our interdisciplinary productions are presented at galleries, venues, festivals, and site-specific locations nationally.
'This piece encourages people to experience Calderdale through new eyes and invites people to witness ambitious work on their local doorstep, creating a love letter to the places and spaces that they call home'
Parvez Qadir, Artistic Director of Breaking Barriers